Merry Christmas!

Weber State Freshman Year - Part 2

Stef and I met on the cross country teams at Weber State my freshman year. It happened to be her sophomore year, and I felt like hot stuff when I started dating an older woman. Here are some pictures of us with our teams from that year. I have a lot of pictures of Stef from cross country, so I will start with those. Most of my pictures came from indoor and outdoor track.

Coach Blaisdell and the 95 Weber State Women's Cross Country Team - (standing) Cheri, Holly, Summer, Emilee, Nikki (kneeling) Stef, Jenny, Kathy, Heidi, Julie, and Molly.

Stef and the team at Pre-Nationals in Ames, Iowa.

Stef at the home meet - she ran 18:23 for 5k.

Stef warming up for the district championships - 18:07 for 5k

Stef with her family. I can't believe how young all of her brothers and sisters look. I like Brooke's shoes, and Amanda's pants, and Kyle's haircut, and Preston's sandals.

Stefanie, Summer, and Heidi at the Weber indoor meet.
This is from a 3000m race in Pocatello. It was a breakthrough race for me. I finished 3rd behind 2 BYU all-americans. The Weber guys you can see in the picture are Bob Evans, Warren Jones, Joe Wilson, and Robby Duncan. I've always loved the ISU track.

This is one of my favorites from that year - We found these 4 random toilets outside the minidome in Pocatello. It was perfect for Scott Thredgold, Joe, Andrea, and me.

This picture of Scott, Jeremy, Joe, and me was taken after Joe's baptism - I think.

I have always liked this shot at the starting line of the conference 3000m in Bozeman, MT. They crowded 24 of us onto the 4 laned track. It ended up being a really competitive field.

These 2 shots are of Stef with her goofy friends - Andrea, Emilee, Jenny, and Summer.

The first steeple I ever competed in. It was at Long Beach State University. This also marks the beginning of the original Weber 'Rat Pack' of Joe, Jeremy, and me. We finished within seconds of each other throughout this season.

The rat pack with Nate Kennedy after the Long Beach steeple. I think Nate qualified for nationals in that race. The rest of us ran around 9:20.

One of my favorite memories from college track was taking water jumps at Long Beach, Stanford, and Oregon the day before we would race. At Weber we had the reputation of being the best steeple chasers, and we usually had 5 or 6 guys running the steeple, so we knew we were studs when people would stop to watch us practice the water jumps. This picture has Robby, Jeremy, Joe, me, and Harmer (missing our 2 best steeplers from that year - Bob Evans and Nate Kennedy) You can't really see it here, but Long Beach would always put gold fish in the water jump.

This was taken at the hotel pool after the steeplechase at Stanford. Bob and I had also run the 10,000 meters the night before. We both ran prs - Bob's was good enough to break the school record and to lap me with a mile to go.

These pictures were both taken at Boise State. I think we raced there twice that season - neither time was very memorable for me. In the picture below, those fellas behind Stefanie are checking her out.

Stef says she is the one who took this picture. It is at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR - my first trip there. This was one of those days before the race when we looked like studs practicing our water jumps. The next day in the race I ran a season best 9:05, and this track became my favorite all-time track. Everytime I raced there in college I ran a pr for the steeple. In this picture - (standing) Donovan Bergstrom, Bob Evans, Warren Jones, Matt Harmer, Lee Lorenz, Rob Christensen, Coach Hislop (kneeling) Robby Duncan, me, Jeremy Tolman, Joe Wilson, and Nate Kennedy.

This was on the water jump at the Utah Collegiate Championships at East High (U of U's track). I thought I had the race won, but Ted Hanson (SUU) came back to beat me in the final lap.

Not a very fun 5000m at Utah State.

This was from the 10,000m at the Big Sky Conference Championships in Tempe, AZ. We raced at midnight, and it was still 95 degrees. I think that is Jeremy in the race with me. He paced me through the first 5k or so. It wasn't the last time Jer paced me to a good race. I finished 6th here.

This was after my last race as a freshman. Jeremy and I ran at the Junior Nationals in the Steeplechase. We were picked to go 1-2 (I had the fastest time of the year for 19 and under). Jeremy finished 1st and earned a trip to Sydney, Australia with the US junior team. I finished 4th and was left home to get ready for my mission. It was a breakthrough race for Jeremy who went on to finish 2nd at NCAAs as a Junior.

This was taken in Strong's Canyon at the end of that year. I think I am the one who took the picture. Stefanie and her roommates - Haley, Darcy, Emilee, Jessica, Jenny, and Andrea.

Weber State Freshman Year - Part 1

I originally got this idea from Brad (scanning old pictures and posting them), and I was thinking that December 13th will be the 13th anniversary of our first kiss :)
Then as I was looking through some pictures I started thinking about that entire freshman year at Weber State and how Stef and I met and started dating (it was her sophomore year), and I thought I would post a few of the old pics. Part 2 will be some running pictures of Stefanie and I from that year.

This is from our very first date. I asked Stef to Homecoming which was the night she got back from a cross country trip. In the picture with us (l to r): Bob & Andrea, Nate & Rob Christensen's cousin, Chris & Julie, us, Jenny & Zeb, Haley & Joe, and Darcy & Scotty.
This was from a girls choice institute dance. Stefanie didn't want me to know how much she liked me, so she asked my roommate Scott. Emilee, one of Stef's teammates, asked me. It was a fun dance, but I have to admit, I was pretty jealous. This picture also has Jenny and Zeb, Darcy and Scott, Summer and B.J., Haley and Chris, Bob and Andrea, and Heidi and her date.Halloween - we all dressed up as doctors with scrubs Stef 'borrowed' (stole) from Ogden Regional. In the picture along with me and Stef: Jenny Mortensen, Haley Wallace, Joe Wilson, Keith the trainer, Emilee Merrik, Bob Evans, Lee Lorenz (superman), Scott Dickey, and Andrea Balderas.

This is early on the night of our first kiss. The picture was taken at Joe's Christmas party. It was the night before we all went home for Christmas break - I knew it would be my last chance for a while. The entire night I was thinking about how cute Stef looked and how I wanted to walk her to her apartment that night and have my 2nd kiss ever.

At one point that year, Stef and 3 other girls in her apartment were dating 4 of the guys on the team. This picture is in Stef's apartment - me & Stef, Scott & Jenny, and Jeremy & Haley. Missing from the picture were Bob & Andrea.My 19th birthday - with a cheesy grin. We are feeling old now that we are in our 30s.
This is the night of Joe's baptism. By this point, Stefanie and I were officially dating, and she was letting me tell people about it :)Stefanie and I at the temple - after general conference. Things were getting pretty serious by this time. This picture is a foreshadow of things to come :)
The last day at Harrison Heights. Summer, Emilee, Stef, Jenny, Jeremy, and me.These two pictures are from one of our last dates before my mission. We hiked up the White Pines Trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon (I think that is what it is called). It was a memorable night. I miss that 'Fartlek' t-shirt. It is on my t-shirt quilt that Stef gave me last year, but I can't actually wear it anymore.

Nike Nationals, Portland, OR

This past weekend, Stefanie and I made a quick trip up to Portland, Oregon to watch the Nike High School Cross Country National Championships. The Davis girls qualified last year and finished 9th. This year they barely missed qualifying as a team, but a mom of one of the girls volunteered to drive the team up to compete in the open race (the 'other' race). Our top runner, Candace, qualified as an individual so she ran in the Championship Race.
It was a quick trip, but Stef and I had a lot of fun, and the girls ran well. Thanks to Colleen for staying at our house with Ashlyn and Samantha.

This is the track on the Nike Campus - it is a 5 lane, 400m track with trees on the outside and trees on the infield. We have started referring to it as 'the track' when we talk about Portland.The girls after the race (Emily, Katie, Meghan, Talya, Candace, Lizzy, and Jessie)

Thanksgiving

We have a lot to catch up on. It has been a busy month, and our computer crashed, but now we are back in the blogging business.
Thanksgiving this year was a lot of fun. We spent Wednesday with the Talleys. It was entertaining to get the 3 babies together, and Ashlyn had a great time playing with Izzy and Gabrie.
On Thursday morning we ran a 5k in Riverton. It was Stef's first race since the pregnancy - She did outstanding. She and Brooke ran the entire race together. It was a tough battle, but Brooke ended up with the stronger kick and took home the 1st place prize (a jar full of chocolates). They were the top two females in the race, and were only beat by 3 males (including me). Amanda and Matt also came to run the 5k. It was just one of the first races in Stefanie's, Amanda's, and Brooke's quest to run their 1st marathons next fall. Matt will probably give one a try soon after.
The real highlight of Thanksgiving was the football game. For the first time in history, the Talley family went home with a victory. For the first 7 or 8 years of our tradition we lost annually to the Poole family (friends of my parents). Last year we lost to a neighborhood team. But this year was our year, even with Dad playing with a bum knee and Stef missing the game to watch the kids. We took down a group of the Hansens (including Kyle - the ex-Skyline football star). They are anxious for redemption and would like to make it a yearly challenge - with the hopes of bringing Preston and Linden in as their secret weapons.
Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks (I wish I had some from the actual football game):